5th Wheel Question

[Rawze]

(08-04-2017 )Billdozer2 Wrote:  Hey guys,

While making my delivery last night I noticed that my 5th wheel release handle was extremely easy to pull. I checked under the plate and found that the bumper spring was broken.

Then I thought about it, other than greasing the plate, is there any other preventative maintenance parts to replace on a 5th wheel? Does anyone rebuild theirs after a certain mileage? I've thought about getting a rebuild kit as I have almost 500,000 miles on the truck and I drop and hook to multiple trailers every day.

I honestly do not know much about a 5th wheel. I know they are fairly simple in how they work, but knowing that it is the only connection between the trailer and my truck, it makes me nervous.

Thanks for any input!
Dozer

5th wheel is fairly easy to re-build with a proper kit. That being said, i do have reservations on re-building certain things on my truck for liability reasons. the 5th wheel being one of them. Here is a reference...
http://rawze.com/forums/showthread.php?t...4#pid10314

If I were pulling my own trailers, I would have re-built it, but since I pull for other carriers who have lots of lawyers and deep pockets, I just replaced it when mine needed a re-build kit.